GIPSIES living on an unauthorised site near Wyre Piddle have been accused of 'taking the mickey' after installing a large chalet.

The group's latest breech of planning law last Wednesday,follows the submission of another planning application for the site along the Wyre Piddle bypass. They want to install nine chalets, measuring around 40ft in length, 18 caravans, an amenities block and a shed.

An appeal last October concluded the gipsies could reapply for planning permission within six months if the site's foul drainage was sorted out. Wychavon District Council officers discussed the latest application with the group last Monday - but within two days, without official permission, one of the proposed chalets had been installed. Ian Marshall, Wychavon's head of legal services, said: "I'm now awaiting a response from the gipsies' solicitor before we take further action. We're certainly not happy with the situation. We had no idea they were thinking of moving one of these chalets on to the site.

"We think the whole site is going to look very cramped and unsightly. At officer level we certainly have serious misgivings at what is proposed."

Vale MP Peter Luff has written to deputy Prime Minister John Prescott,

asking him to personally intervene in the situation. Mr Luff added: "The travellers on this site are really taking the mickey.

"First they bought land at agricultural prices and rode a coach and horses through the planning system to establish a site for touring caravans - albeit a pretty permanent looking site.

"Now they want to build houses on the site. They've even, and helpfully, put the first one up already without waiting for planning permission, so everyone can see exactly what's happening. No one else would get away with this clever stunt to acquire housing land at agricultural prices."